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Fanfiction Fridays: The Irony of Bubblemates by Brodad

We all have them, those stories that we visit the pages of each day in hopes that its author updates with a pace that matches our voracious need of their works. This is one of mine. This is another Homestuck story, so I’ll try to explain the confusing parts as best I can but to do so will involve some MILD SPOILERS, so I’ll just warn you of that now.

All in all, once you get the basics the physics behind The Irony of Bubblemates by Brodad, it’s incredibly simple and the possibilities keep the audience coming back for more. The general premise is that cool kid Dave Strider (who I mentioned in my previous Homestuck fic review) and the incredibly dorky alien troll kid, Tavros Nitram, have taken up rooming together in Dave’s dreambubble apartment. By the mention of dream, you may think that this is some terrible fic where a bunch of heartwarming moments happen and then they wake up and don’t remember anything. You would only be half-right. In the series, dreambubbles act as a way for a being to work through a previously stressful moment of their lives by re-living it, only “waking up” in the bubble once they fully realize their massive amounts of déjà vu. However, these bubbles are not confined to the living, the hundreds upon hundreds of dead, offshoot timeline beings have dreambubbles too and they can control where they go (since they don’t have to worry about waking up). That is where we find our two protagonists: dead and chilling out playing some video games.

Aside from sick-nasty rap-offs and humorous banter, this story not only explores the feelings of someone that has to come to terms with their alive self still living the life that they no longer can have, but also further fleshes out the troll romance system. Even though webcomic author Andrew Hussie goes over it more than enough times, it’s still pretty confusing, so this fic was really helpful. Besides that, it explores Tavros’ insecurities, Dave’s fear of commitment, and how an inter-species relationship can work when it seems like a wrong move will land you in the hospital (yes, you can still get hurt even though you’re dead. What a raw deal, eh?). Although their relationship is adorable, this fic quickly becomes highly smutty and NSFW. Luckily, you can tell which chapters are going to have sexual content because Brodad is a total sweetie and put ratings and a short description of the part at the beginning of each chapter.

Even if you don’t really understand Homestuck, I would recommend giving it a read anyway. Especially if you like slightly dramatic relationship fics where the characters don’t get into a relationship right away. You can find the story here on Brodad’s tumblr. She also put it up on AO3, but it’s going through a massive re-hauling right now so it may not be up in its entirety.

About Tsunderin

Greetings and salutations! Feel free to just call me Rin—we’re all friends here, or nemeses who just haven’t gotten to know each other well enough. I’m a video game lover from the womb to the tomb, and Bioware enthusiast until the day they stop making games with amazing characters that I cry over. And while I don’t partake as often as I used to, don’t be surprised to find me poking around an anime or manga every once in a while either. A personal interest for me is characterization in media and how women in particular have been portrayed, are being portrayed, and will be portrayed in the future. I’m not going to mince words about my opinion either.